


keep calling (don't stop)

by adreamaloud, daneorange (adreamaloud)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 08:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1380967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adreamaloud/pseuds/adreamaloud, https://archiveofourown.org/users/adreamaloud/pseuds/daneorange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That time all it took was one Asgardian fugitive to finally uncover some secrets. Spoilers until ep. 15.</p>
            </blockquote>





	keep calling (don't stop)

**Author's Note:**

> That time all it took was one Asgardian fugitive to finally uncover some secrets. It's about time I wrote for Shield, I think.

_ i give a little into the moment / like I’m standing at the edge _

_\- falling, haim._

Of all people,  _Simmons._

Skye tries not to get too weird -- which isn't so hard, considering how everyone's already weird, and she's always looking pale anyhow these days. No one sees Simmons in the hours following Lady Sif's departure from the Bus with Lorelei -- whether it's guilt or embarrassment, no one really knows for sure.

"Where's Simmons?" asks Coulson when he drops by Skye's cube. Skye shrugs, offering Coulson a seat on her hospital bed. Coulson smiles as he declines. Skye wonders briefly about him -- if he were _prone_ to that sort of threat at all.

_But then again,_ she reminds herself, _he's like our dad._ She is unable to stop a shudder from coursing through her.

"Cold?" Coulson asks, worry crossing his face.

Skye shakes her head. "I'm fine," she says. "I'm sure Simmons would eventually… _get over_ _it._ "

Coulson smiles. "I'm just glad Lorelei didn't hurt her."

"Me too," Skye just says, staring at her screen saver.

*

When they told her Lorelei had taken Simmons, Skye couldn't believe it, not immediately. "She took Simmons," Fitz said, more slowly then, though he looked thoroughly confused, like he didn't believe it himself.

"But I thought--" Skye began. _But I thought this Asgardian girl seduced people to -- oh._ "Oh."

"Yeah," Fitz said. "'Oh' sounds about right." And then, shaking his head, "No, scratch that. We don't know for sure. She's Asgardian, right? What do we know about her?"

_Just that she amasses kingdoms by seducing men to do her will,_ Skye thought, but it got stuck at the tip of her tongue.

"If you were Jemma," Fitz said. "Where would you take her?"

Skye looked at him blankly. The truth was -- she didn't know.

*

Fortunately, it took them only a couple of days -- with May and Ward combined, it really was just a matter of time.

*

"Has Simmons--" Fitz blinks as he notices Coulson sitting with Skye. "Hello sir. Have you--"

"Unfortunately, Simmons hasn't come out yet," says Coulson. "Of her room, I meant." Skye tries not to snicker as Fitz nods.

"I see," says Fitz.

"No sign of Simmons yet?" It's Ward at the door now, with May right behind him.

"She's still shaken," says May.

"What happened? You said Lady Sif collared Lorelei at the pool side--"

" _Fitz_ ," May says. Her eyes don't even have to narrow much these days for them to strike fear and strike _deep_.

Fitz cowers for a bit. "I'm just saying it could have been worse," he says eventually. "I mean, if it were Ward, there'd be glass all over the Bus by now."

"I think I heard Lady Sif call it 'flying boat,'" says Coulson. "But you're right. If it had been Agent Ward -- would have been a bigger problem."

"With all due respect sir--" 

"What? Lorelei was _pretty_ ," Skye says, raising a brow at Ward. "I'm just saying."

Ward laughs. "Well," he says, crossing his arms. "She didn't come to me. Maybe she didn't really like an army." A soft thud fills the air as May digs an elbow into his stomach. He coughs, surprised. "I'm just _saying_."

"Maybe she liked them pretty," says Fitz.

"Or maybe she liked them smart," says May, before turning to leave.

*

_Who doesn't like them smart,_ Skye thinks to herself, as she closes the door. Fitz was the last to leave, after Coulson, after Ward. She pieces together the moment of arrest, from different story fragments. They all had the same detail: _Pool side._

Skye finds herself laughing at the thought of Simmons under the sun. _But she's so pale,_ Skye thinks, only to counter it with, _Like I'm not pale at all, am I?_ She remembers that small moment she caught Simmons back on the Bus -- she'd given Skye a cursory glance, and Skye thought she was saying, _I'll be right back._

There's a knock on the window as Skye climbs into bed. "Hey."

Simmons stands by the door, hands in pockets. "Hi," she says quietly. “Have they taken your samples today?”

_Shit,_ Skye thinks, and Simmons rolls her eyes.

“What did I expect?” she sighs, proceeding to the drawers. “ _Nothing_ gets done when I’m not around, hm?” Skye tries to protest, but before she could, Simmons is already upon her, needle to her skin.

“And the blood drive goes on,” Skye says, looking at her intently. Simmons doesn’t even glance at her.

“This is for your own good,” she just says, securing the sample. And then, softer: “How are you feeling these days?”

“Better,” says Skye. “And you?”

“Can’t decide which was worse: This or that time I had to jump off the plane.”

Skye gives her a look. She doesn’t ever want to go back to _that_ time ever again. “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” she says, patting the space next to her. When Simmons hesitates, Skye feigns offense. “The last time I checked, I wasn’t contagious.” Simmons only smiles. “ _Jemma._ ”

“I’m sure you have your theories by now,” she says, fiddling with the edge of her blouse.

“What theories?” Skye asks. “It wasn’t your fault you got kidnapped.”

Simmons sighs, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed. “Not sure we could call it that. I was… _perfectly aware_.”

“You weren’t yourself.”

“Wasn’t I?”

Skye blinks, stunned by the question. “She was _Asgardian_. Who knew what kind of spell she put on you?”

“Something that was only supposed to work on _men_ ,” says Simmons. “Yet also worked on _me_.”

“She is _alien_ , Simmons,” Skye insists. “For all we know, she could have turned _all_ of us.”

Simmons lets herself laugh a little at that, and Skye feels her chest expanding. “ _Turned_ ,” Simmons repeats, voice small. “You make it sound like she’s what, a _vampire_ or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” says Skye. “Vampires aren’t _real._ ”

“Actually, there has been evidence to the effect—”

“ _Jemma._ ”

There’s a wordless beat before Simmons says, “Oh.” She bites down on her lip, a corner of her mouth lifting to a smirk. “Of course.”

Skye finds herself laughing – it’s been a considerable while since the last time she even tried to, so there’s a moment’s shock of pain in her abdomen as she coughs out the sound. Simmons pushes herself off the door in a rush, face pale.

“Skye!”

“I’m all right!” Skye puts her hands up, and Simmons goes straight to her stitches, lifting Skye’s shirt wordlessly to run her fingers over the spot, still tender after all these weeks.

“Your stitches,” Simmons murmurs. “Have you any idea at all how… _fragile_ , how—”

“ _Jemma_.” Skye wraps her hand around hers, still slightly shaky. “I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?” This close, Skye thinks Simmons smells like fresh sheets – clean, with a sheen of antiseptic. It makes her want to laugh some more, but then again she feels Simmons pushing against her stomach. “You were going to laugh again, weren’t you?”

Skye smiles. “I look forward to that day,” she just says. Simmons pulls away slowly; Skye feels her dragging her fingers gently over the skin there, and for a moment Lorelei’s face flashes in Skye’s mind again. This time, she feels strangely incensed, her chest tightening.

“Are you _sure_ you’re all right?”

“Nothing,” Skye says, feeling a warmth spread from her neck upward. “I was just – I just remembered Lorelei.”

Simmons looks away, like she doesn’t want to see Skye’s face as she says the name. “What about her?”

“She could have—it could have gone wrong, you know,” Skye says. “She could have— _hurt_ you.”

Smiling, Simmons just says, “But she didn’t.” When Skye looks at her, there’s a small smile on her face, like there was a secret thought that put it there, one that’s beyond Skye’s reach. “Honestly, I didn’t think she would.”

“What was she like?”

Simmons shakes her head. “She was… how do I say this? Out of this world, I suppose.”

Skye swats Simmons by the arm. “Stop making me laugh, it hurts.”

“I’m being serious,” Simmons says, but she’s laughing anyhow, and then she’s pushing against Skye’s stitched-up stomach again, hand warm over her shirt. “Here. I’ll make sure these won’t come apart when you laugh.”

“Pretty sure that’s not how it works.”

“Are you questioning my _science_ , Patient Skye?”

Skye narrows her eyes at her, sticking her tongue out. “Not at all, Doc.” She grins at her, and for a while they just sit there, grinning at each other quietly, Simmons’ hand still on her stomach.

Skye breathes in deep. “So.”

“Hm?” Simmons keeps her eyes on where she’s touching Skye, watching the rise and fall of her breathing.

“What was she like?”

Simmons makes a face, shrugging her shoulders. “Oh, you know,” she begins, squinting like she’s concentrating. “ _Pushy._ ”

“Two days following a pretty girl around and all you can say is she’s _pushy_?”

“I don’t know what sort of answer you want from me,” Simmons laughs. “She was… strange, as expected. And utterly _possessive_.”

“Possessive?”

“I honestly thought… well, perhaps it’s all part of the spell, but it all felt like I was extremely _wanted_. Felt like an all-consuming thing.”

“Well, we want you here, too. Just so you know.”

“I know, it’s just that – it was an alien feeling.” Catching herself, Simmons starts chuckling again. “ _Alien._ What an apt word for it.”

“What’s so alien about it?”

“ _Want._ Isn’t it strange?”

Skye considers the question for a moment, before nodding tentatively. “In some ways, I guess.” Simmons sighs, pulling back. Just like that, the moment’s gone.

“You should probably get some rest.”

“Stay a bit.”

Simmons looks at her before settling into the chair beside the bed. “All right. Just for a bit,” she says. “At least this chair remembers me well.”

Skye smiles, remembering a handful of mornings when she woke to this: Simmons huddled in this chair, hugging a folder close to her chest. “I remember waking up and seeing you there,” she tells Simmons. “That— _that_ made me feel wanted.”

“I remember—” Simmons hesitates for a moment, rubbing her face with her open palm. “I remember Coulson yelling for me not to use the drug on you. I remember thinking about how I was losing you anyhow, so I might as well.” Skye bites down on her tongue; is this how Coulson felt like, when he was being told about that time he was brought back from the dead? “I remember holding you, thinking you would die.”

“But I didn’t.”

“But you didn’t, and it was—it was the one thing I wanted.”

“Jemma.” Skye feels the name roll off her tongue. She can see what Simmons is leading her to – how it all fits in the end. Truth be told, she knows – this is going to be a strange, beautiful thing.

“I wish I could tell you everything,” Simmons says.

“In the morning,” Skye replies. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

When she closes her eyes, she thinks she hears Simmons say, _All right;_ feels her come closer and press a kiss on the top of her head. #


End file.
